- Who Are the Buyers of Holiday Homes ?

The global crisis in 2008, has put its tremendous impact on the economy in Europe. Everyday life has given us a new "agenda" in the media with headlines such as banking packages, bankruptcies, and rising unemployment.

The "08 crisis" has strongly infuenced the housing market in Bulgaria.

The housing market before the crisis
Foreigners were granted the right to buy properties in Bulgaria in year 2000. It was back then mainly people from the U.K. and Ireland who discovered the new market, followed by customers from Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Poland.

It was common to buy an apartment, sometimes two and more, which were not built yet, and pay the purchase price in installments, as the building was being constructed.

The market after the crisis
In 2006 and 2007 it was also interesting for people from Russia and the Russian-speaking republics (with a population of about 250 million, of which about 150 million live in Russia), to buy holiday apartments at the Black Sea Coast.

The number of Russians, willing to buy a home in Bulgaria increased significantly after the global crisis, which did not affect the Russian economy significantly.

It was after year 2008 when it became possible for the Russian middle class, to buy resale apartments, which declined in vaue lby 10 to 20% , per year.

Russians do not buy to invest
You, coming from the UK and Ireland,most probably bought your property in Bulgaria as an investment with an notion of:

rising housing prices after Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007

rising housing prices with the expected( back then) replacement of the leva with euro

to recoup the investment by renting

Most Russians do not buy a holiday apartment as an investment, but as a holiday property, they use extensively. They are attracted to: